Gaia promotes sustainable mining in Central Asia

The new project finds ways to reduce environmental and social hazards of mining, one of the most rapidly growing economic sectors in Central Asia.

The national economies of the Central Asian countries
are much based on minerals production and processing, and 30–50% of the
national gross domestic products consist of exports of various minerals.

“However, many local communities are very critical of
new and old mining activities. In particular, risks of environmental and social
hazards from mining activities are of concern”, says Pasi Rinne, Chairman of the Board of Gaia.

Gaia's new research project National Regulation and Corporate Social Responsibility in Mining in
Central Asia focuses on the legislative frameworks and policy-making as
well as on the corporate social responsibility and environmental management of
mining corporations. It analyses accountability, transparency and responsibility
in mining. The priority countries of the research are Kyrgyzstan and
Tajikistan.

The project aims to highlight the magnitude of
possibilities for reducing tension and risk of conflict through public–private
cooperation and to strengthen the body of knowledge on regulation and corporate
policies. It provides critically important information on many current efforts
addressing environmental and security concerns in Central Asia. The project
also supports on-going governmental processes aiming to develop sustainable
policies and practices for the management and extraction of natural resources.

This project continues Gaia's work in the field of
sustainable mining in Central Asia, preceded by the Environmental Security, Mining and Good Governance project which is
being conducted in cooperation with the University of Eastern Finland and Zoi
Environment Network The new project is
funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and implemented together
with the University of Eastern Finland.